Thursday, April 7, 2011

Light & Lazy: A New Take on Cheesecake

I've mentioned before that I love cheese. I love cheese almost as much as I love chocolate. Almost. Incorporating cheese into dessert is like the best of both worlds.

Cheesecake is perhaps the quintessential example of what happens when cheese goes sweet. Cheesecake is also the quintessential uber fattening dessert. Brick after brick of cream cheese, eggs, sugar, butter--it's serious business. It's also hard to justify making one for no good reason. So what is a cheese-loving girl to do?

Well, it isn't technically baking, but the Literate Baker has a super fast, super easy dish that's a whole lot lighter than the original. I'll call is a cream cheese fluff. Yeah. Fluff.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until light and smooth. Add the extracts and beat some more. Add about 1 cup of the whipped topping and stir to combine. Fold in the remaining remaining topping.

The concoction could be spread in a graham crack crust. Or eaten with a spoon. Or, you could do what I do--serve it like a dip with some graham crackers and fruit.

So, it isn't healthy, but it sort of looks it, no? It's relatively light. It delivers that tangy delightfullness that one looks for in any cream cheese treat. It can also be made in about four minutes. Can't beat that for a quick and easy way to...